Lana The Memories, the Myths, the Movies by Cheryl Crane with Cindy De La Hoz is the ultimate Lana Turner movie book. This book is much more than a coffee table book or a simple biography. The giant book not only has very rare photographs and facts but a heart felt story of a daughter's love for her mother.
As for Lana's men, Cheryl's touching recollection of the Johnny Stompanato murder makes a reader want to cry. It is clear to me Cheryl really didn't do anything wrong. She was concerned about her mother, brought the knife up as a defense and Johnny accidentally ran into the knife. She is no more a murderess than I am. Yet, you feel she still feels bad about this all of these years. I would have done the same thing, if it were my mother. Also, Cheryl's small biographies on all of the men in her mother's life is very interesting. Cheryl tells it like it is but doesn't degrade her mother. The chapter on Ronald Dante makes me feel for Lana because as all of us beauty queens or kings get older, we become vunerable to younger men or women, who want to use us. The only comment I will say about Lex Baxter is that he was a bastard. You can read the book and see what I mean for yourself. Tyrone Power was the one who got away. The beautiful pictures of the two stars make you sad because you wish that they could have became a happy couple. Anyway, it is good to see two beautiful people together in Cheryl's rare photos.
The filmography is much more interesting in this book than the book, "The Films of Lana Turner" because Cheryl gives personal insight of what was going on in her mother's life during the making of a particular film, which a stranger could not write.
In summary, the Lana Turner book is about a little girl who thought she was Cinderalla at the ball and as time went by, reality destroyed her dream and made her accept reality or else die. Lana Turner was not only one of the most beauitul of the golden age stars of the movies but one of the most identifiable to the general public. Thank God, she had her daughter with her toward the end because with the men, it just didn't work out.
You will keep going back to reading this book because there is so much information for one to take in for one quick read. Thanks Cheryl for a great book.
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A rather unusual biography because of its large size and pictorial content. I estimate there maybe six or seven hundred photos throughout the four hundred pages so the contents are really a visual life story rather than a text heavy conventional star biography and actually the lines are well spaced so that they fill the page space left by the photos on each spread. There are two parts: Memories and myths (231 pages) and The movies (134 pages) the remaining pages have look at Short subjects, Television, Stage, Appendix and Index.The first part is bursting with those shots of Lana in the public arena with a male friend (usually in a restaurant or night club) the sort that Hollywood snappers took by the thousand of Tinsel Town stars (under the strict control of the studios of course) to satisfy print media back then, other photos show her at home with husband and daughter Cheryl. All of them are basically posed, the sort the publisher might describe as 'many never seen before', none are candid shots taken without Lana being aware she was being photographed. I thought the most interesting ones were the studio shots with their perfect lighting and extensive retouching to produce a flawless skin, fortunately some of these are whole page and they look quite stunning. The second section has a synopsis of Lana's movies from 1937 to 1976 with plenty stills and general studio shots with co-stars. Nicely, there is usually a color poster of each film.The book is a rather sumptuous production with thick matt art paper and well printed. The designers resisted the temptation to angle or overlap any of the photos and there is a subtle use of color panels. Overall I thought this was a handsome looking book, the upright shape helps too and because of so many photos (in mono and color) it's a treasure trove for Lana fans. Look at some spreads from the book at Westread Book Reviews and click on 2015 November
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Top reviews from other countries
trish young
Great life story of Lana
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 11, 2019RhondaC
Definitely a book to add to your collection
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 28, 2014J. Harbourne
great coffee table book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 22, 2012CAVA
Cheryl Crane did a good job on this book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 11, 2014
